Review of Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

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I first watched Hitchcock films like many other people who love film and studied it: in school. I avoided watching movies from before the 2000s for the longest time, but then college forced me to go out of my comfort zone as I minored in film studies.

I had bamboozled my way into a film criticism and film introduction course for film majors (which I was not), which is where I finally began watching Hitchcock movies. I recently (at the time of typing this—this is going to be scheduled for way in advance because of how much backlog I have) saw that Netflix had a bunch of Hitchcock movies, which they removed not long after adding.

During that time I took the chance to watch Psycho. I didn’t get to his other movies during the time they were on Netflix, but I will definitely get there eventually.

Let’s get into the review—I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

After stealing from her employer, a young woman finds her path crossing with a killer.

In this movie, our main character is Marion Crane, a secretary from Phoenix. After her boyfriend complains that they’re not getting married any time soon because of the sheer amount of debt he has, she decides to steal $40,000, which is a lot of money during this period, from her employer. She then decides to drive to the boyfriend’s house in California with the money.

But when there’s a rainstorm on the way there, she decides to stop at a motel called the Bates Motel. She checks in under a fake name, meeting the owner, Norman Bates, and he invites her into the office to have dinner with him. As he retreats to his house, overlooking the property, she hears him arguing with his mother as he gets the food.

He comes back and tells her his hobby is being a taxidermist, which is weird and a red flag, and that his mother is ill. Marion says maybe his mother should be institutionalized if she’s that unwell, and he says that she wouldn’t hurt a fly and seems offended at the thought of doing that.

Marion gets cold feet and decides to drive back to Arizona and return the money the next morning, but when she goes to take a shower that night, someone comes into the bathroom and stabs her to death while she’s screaming and naked. Norman comes in to check on her, finds her body, and then he decides to clean up the scene and dump everything in her room, effectively hiding the evidence.

But Marion’s sister Lila comes up to California and tells her boyfriend she’s gone missing. A private investigator named Arbogast also arrives, saying he’s been hired to find the missing money. He goes to the Bates Motel and immediately finds Norman suspicious, which is valid because he’s acting very weird.

He also sees Marion’s name on the guest register, and asks to speak to Norman’s mother. He says no, and when he tries to go into the Bates house himself, he’s stabbed to death by the shadowy figure. Sam decides to go the motel when the detective is missing, and Lila and he reports the situation to the sheriff nearby.

The sheriff tells them Norman’s mother died 10 years prior, and Lila and Sam realize something has happened to the detective. They go to the motel, Sam distracts Norman, and Lila goes into the home and discovers Norman’s mother’s mummified corpse inside of the home.

As she starts screaming, Norman appears in a woman’s wig and clothes. He tries to stab her, but Sam takes him down. We learn at the station from a psychiatrist that Norman killed his mother and her lover, then he mummified the corpse out of guilt and kept her alive in his memory. Now his alternate personality, everyone time he likes a woman, the Mother personality takes over and kills them.

While Norman sits in a jail cell, he hears his mother’s voice telling him that he did all of these murders himself. The police then retrieve Marion’s remains and money, ending that mystery.

Overall Thoughts

Hitchcock is the master of suspense and mystery, and this is a movie that exemplifies his practice as a filmmaker best to me. It’s plot is so straightforward in the end, and because he manages to keep us on our toes, it feels like it’s more scary than it actually is.

Like I found the plot to be basic and predictable, which is fine by all standards to me because of how he manages to transform and elevate it. We often talk about movie magic—that’s what can make an okay movie into something excellent.

If you’re just looking for the summary here and haven’t watched the movie, go actually watch it. It’s a great film full of technique, and you can learn a little more about film going to see this one.

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